The present invention relates to an attachment structure of a door mirror which is attached to a door provided on a driver's-seat side of a vehicle, and specifically relates to an attachment structure of a door mirror which can ensure the attachment rigidity of the door mirror and have a sufficient strength against a vehicle side collision.
Conventionally, it is known that a door mirror is provided at a so-called triangular corner portion which is formed by a beltline portion and a front pillar (a so-called A pillar) of a front side door at a front-end portion of a side window. Also, a structure in which a door mirror is provided, not at the triangular corner portion, at a position which is located in back of the triangular corner portion, projecting outward from a door outer panel is known.
The structure according to the former may provide less visibility for a driver seated in a driver's seat, but the structure according to the latter can provide better visibility. That is, in the former structure, some visible area may be improperly shut off by the triangular corner portion, which is a mirror attachment portion, and a front pillar portion. According to the latter structure, however, a sporty vehicle design can be attained, and also since a space in front of the mirror is utilized to improve the driver's visibility for an outside area right behind the front pillar, the better visibility can be obtained.
In a case in which the door mirror is provided to project outward from the door outer panel as described above, however, there is a concern that simply fixing the door mirror to the door outer panel may cause a lack of the attachment strength of the door mirror, so that noise may be improperly caused by vehicle's vibrations which occur during the vehicle traveling. As one of countermeasures against this concern, a certain structure, as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-97120, in which a bracket fixed to a structural member of a front side door, such as a glass run channel (see a division bar), extends up to a door-mirror attachment position, and a door mirror is fixed to both a door outer panel and the above-described bracket is known.
Meanwhile, some means may be necessary in order to restrain the front side door from deforming toward the inside of a vehicle compartment against a vehicle collision, particularly against a vehicle side collision in which it is difficult to ensure a sufficient stroke for impact absorption. In general, a reinforcing member extending in a vehicle longitudinal direction is provided inside the front side door so as to restrain a vehicle-body deformation in the collision. However, since providing such a reinforcing member may cause increase of parts number or attaching steps, thereby increase the vehicle weight, there is a room for improvement.